Art & Architecture

Despite its prime importance as the terminus of the yellow line, the most crucial public transit conduit between the South Shore and Montreal, this station is small, cramped, and unprepossessing.

Rather than a conventional headhouse, its entrance was originally integrated into a shopping mall; this has since been replaced by a residential complex, built between 2021 and 2026. The station is accessed via stairs at either end of the complex’s lobby, which also connects to the RTL/Exo Longueuil bus terminus and the Université de Sherbrooke building, as well as to multiple nearby buildings (uniquely, by skywalks rather than underground passages).

Once inside the lobby, the access to the station is oddly inconspicuous. While there is wayfinding signage leading to the stairs down to the metro platform, it is incorporated into a single overhead signboard with multiple directional indications, and it doesn’t follow the metro’s graphic standards, making it easy to miss. (In fact, this is the only station that lacks the signature black nameplate found over the entrance to every other station.) Moreover, there is currently no sign above the staircase itself.

More significantly, the layout of the station doesn’t show a lot of forward thinking. Unlike all the other terminus stations, arriving passengers do not pass through turnstiles when they disembark, and there is no fare-paid connection between the platforms, so there is no way to get to the other platform without paying the fare again—a Zone B fare, no less. Every other station (except for Place-d’Armes, following a puzzling renovation) has a way to get from one platform to the other, for passengers who take the wrong train or who miss their stop. This station’s layout was short-sighted.

Moreover, for such a busy station, it is alarmingly cramped. The gateline, uniquely, is located directly at platform level, so that passengers entering through the turnstiles are deposited onto the limited platform space which is often already crowded with passengers waiting for the next train. Renovations have shown ingenuity in cramming more ticket booths and turnstiles into the available space, including some passing sideways, but it can still become very crowded. The low ceilings only add to the claustrophobic feeling.

Finally, the platforms are aesthetically lacking, with most of the platform walls being clad in flat, completely uninspired yellow tiles (for unknown reasons, some of the tiling in the tail of the departure platform is a different beige colour). There are only a few features of architectural and aesthetic interest. The pillars supporting the platform ceiling and separating the ticket area from the platform are noticeable for their unusual inverted trapezoid shape (stainless steel feet have been added to facilitate maintenance). On the departure platform, a pattern of concentric circles in black and grey ceramic tiles expand outward from the rear of the ticket hall across the floor, otherwise clad in tawny flagstones.

The station’s sole artwork is a pair of concrete walls, one on each platform, with a subtle pattern of angular lines designed by the station’s architect, Jean Dumontier.

While the station had been connected to a multiplatform bus terminal since its beginnings,³ the modernized Terminus Longueuil was opened on September 28, 2000. The sprawling facility extends out from the rear of the Complexe Charles-Le Moyne building. It is entirely enclosed, allowing passengers to wait for their buses sheltered from the weather. It is one of the few bus terminals in the metro network with this feature, which ought to be more widespread, and the largest. A central aisle, lined with shops and restaurants, branches out into six platform jetties, with a second long aisle on the west side of the terminal. The decor is postmodern industrial, with arched roofs and exposed, curved steel beams and conduits. Large expanses of glass curtain walls make it easy for passengers to see their buses arriving.

Sadly, though, the metro station itself is cramped, poorly laid out, and less than inspiring to look at. It doesn’t make a very good first impression to people embarking for Montreal. When the original mall was demolished and a new building constructed in its place, this project could have included solutions to the problems with the station’s layout. For example, the ticket hall could have been moved up to ground level, where it would have had more space and would have provided a fare-paid connection between the platforms; but this was not done. Moreover, no elevators or even elevator shafts were added. It is depressing that this precious opportunity was squandered.